Network sizing is extremely important for LiDAR data processing and analytics due to the extremely dense point cloud data. For example, a typical high-resolution camera needs about 4 Mb/s bandwidth per stream forwarded to the analytics processing server whereas current LiDAR sensors consume between 25 Mb/s and 50 Mb/s. This challenge may increase in the future as newer LiDAR sensors come to market with higher point cloud density (up to 256 Mb/s) and higher refresh rates driving even higher bandwidth requirements.
Our current CV Platform offering comes configured with 25 Gb/s network cards in each of the nodes. A sample bandwidth sizing estimation calculation is as follows:
Total network capacity = 25Gb/s
Assume 80% target utilization = 20Gb/s
Single LiDAR point cloud stream = 50Mb/s
Total supportable sensors = 400 units/nodeExample theoretical limit of the network bandwidth required to run LiDAR workload.
The bandwidth requirement for specific analytics use cases should also consider the network needs of other applications and systems management. This analysis also assumes that a user can deliver 25 Gb/s to each node in the CV platform over their data center hosting network. When planning an implementation, be aware that data processing computing resources will likely be exhausted before the network theoretical limit is reached.